City Government

Money, Class Size and Mayoral Politics

Having once told voters to judge him on his handling
of education in the city, Mayor Michael Bloomberg
reacted jubilantly to the news on May 18 that reading
scores for the city’s fourth graders had risen sharply
this year. Of the students taking the test in 2005,
almost 60 percent met state standards, an increase of
about 10 percent over last year.

But amid the good news, a stubborn fact remains: Kids
in New York City still do far worse on this type of
exam than students elsewhere in the state. Statewide,
70 percent of fourth graders meet the standards.

Many of those looking to close that discrepancy -- or
“achievement gap” -- see two, sometimes related
solutions: Give the city schools more money and use a
lot of that money to decrease class size. Both issues
have emerged as hot topics in this year’s mayoral
race.

The Funding Issue

The fight for more state funding for city schools
dates at least back to the Dinkins administration when
the Campaign for Fiscal Equity filed suit, seeking more
funding for city schools. Despite numerous court
rulings in the city’s favor, New York City public schools have
not yet seen any of the billions of extra dollars the court ruled they should receive -- and thanks to court appeals by
Governor George Pataki they are not likely to any time
soon.

Bloomberg has made his position on this issue
clear. He supports the court ruling that city schools
get billions more. But he does not want the city to
pay a single additional cent.

The courts did not address the question of how much
of any new funding would come from the state and how
much from the city,
declaring that such decisions belong with the
legislative branch, not the judiciary. But, Bloomberg
has argued, any increase at all in city education
spending would require cuts in other areas that "would
harm the very children this lawsuit is designed to
help." Michael Cardoza, the Bloomberg administration's
corporation counsel, has even said that the city would
reject any additional state funds if it had to chip in
part of the settlement. And the mayor's proposed
budget for fiscal year 2006 does not assume any big
influx of state funds for education or any major additional city
expense to match it.

His opponents clearly see him as vulnerable on education in general, and this funding case in particular. But they are also attacking each other.

In April, Fernando Ferrer proposed a
tax of about a half a cent on sales of an average
share of stock. Ferrer anticipated this would raise
about $1 billion â€“- or, he said, enough to cover the
city’s share of any negotiated settlement between
city, state and courts in the CFE case. It makes sense
to require Wall Street to contribute to education, the
former Bronx borough president said, because “they are
the industry that benefits most in seeing that New
York’s children are educated to the highest of
standards.”

Even though a similar, and far larger, tax existed
in New York City until 1981, virtually everybody criticized Ferrer's proposal. Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, whose
support would probably be needed for such a tax to be
enacted, said the idea was dead. Bloomberg called it a
``job-killing'' plan, and Representative Anthony
Weiner, also running for mayor, termed it ``a
mind-bogglingly bad idea.''

For her part, C. Virginia Fields says it is far too soon to be
talking about how much the city will pay. “We need to
have a much more aggressive position taken by the
mayor of this city with the governor and the state
legislature,” she says. The mayor needs to show the
“kind of passion” he has exhibited on the West Side
stadium and push the governor to provide “what’s right
for the children of New York City."

Council Speaker Gifford Miller has proposed an
extension of a tax surcharge on those earning more
than $500,000 a year.

Weiner’s plan to provide funding for city schools
calls for a tax on millionaires and cuts
in some of Bloomberg’s pet education programs, such as
paid parent coordinators in every school and the
Leadership Academy, which trains prospective school
principals.

The Class Size Debate

If and when the city gets any additional money, many
parents, teachers and others want it to go toward
reducing the number of students in city classrooms,
particularly in the elementary school grades.

Just how much emphasis to put on cutting class size
has been a key part of the educational debate in the
city.

Advocates, such as the organization
Class Size Matters, believe that no other single improvement can do as
much to boost achievement as cutting class size.
According to Class Size Matters, average class size in kindergarten through third grade in New York City is 22, down from
25 several years ago. But the group says that a quarter of
students in the early elementary grades remain in
classes with more than 25 children. This compares with
an average class size of 20 in New York State as a whole. Class
sizes become progressively large as children advance
through public school, with high school classes in the
city typically 34 students.

Led by Miller, members of the City Council
have proposed reducing the average class size to 17 in
early elementary grades, 20 in grades four and five, and
23 in middle school. At a mayoral candidates forum on education, Miller said that smaller class size is one of the things “that we know works” in
improving education.

The other Democratic candidates express similar
beliefs.

“Smaller class sizes is part of my overall list of
things that we need to address,“ Fields says, along with better pay for teachers,
expanded high school vocational programs, identifying
students with possible problems at an early age and
increasing the number of guidance counselors.

Chiding the mayor for not making overcrowding and
class size a priority, Ferrer said, “Smaller classes
mean our kids can get the individual attention they
needed and deserveâ€¦Smaller classes work”

Not surprisingly, the teachers union has supported
effort to reduce class size. “Lowering class sizes is
one of the most basic, foundational reforms we can do
to improve student achievement,” UFT President Randi
Weingarten, said at
a rally earlier this month, adding that some of the
money in the court case must go toward reducing class
size rather than being “squandered.”

The Bloomberg administration does not seem to agree. A
2003 audit by State Comptroller Alan Hevesi found the city did
not create the number of new classrooms it was
supposed to, despite being given money for that
purpose. The mayor’s proposed 2006 budget includes
increases in funding -â€“ particularly for the mayor’s
cherished program to create more small schools -â€“ but
has no additional money to cut class size. And in its
plan for a sound, basic education, given to the courts
last summer, the city said it would focus on
leadership training, secondary school reform, early
childhood education and special education and
instruction for non-English speakers. The plan does
not mention class size as a priority.

The Department of Education denies it ignores class size. Stephen
Morello, communications director for Schools
Chancellor Joel Klein, told the Sun recently that the
administration already had cut class size and that
reducing it further “is a key part of the city's
five-year capital plan and its strategy for spending
the CFE operating funds.”

But advocates, remaining skeptical, want to force the
city to deal with class size. Class Size Matters has
launched a drive
to put on the November ballot a measure calling for
the city to spend at least 25 percent of any CFE money
on bringing down class size in the city to a level
comparable to that in the rest of the state.

In 2003, advocates collected more than 114,000
signatures in support of a ballot proposal on class
size. But Bloomberg managed to quash the
vote. Since the mayor has his own ideas for charter
reform measures
,
he could well bump the class size question off the
ballot again this year, regardless of how many
signatures advocates collect.

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